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From my previous post, it’s explained that

I haven't made a film for ten years... until now I made this one.

, can be said as

Je n'ai pas tourné un seul film depuis dix ans.

; while

In ten years, I still haven't made a single film.

can be said as

En dix ans, je n'ai toujours pas tourné un seul film.

Now, if one tries with depuis for a particular date, not a durations, how shall it be done?

For example , how to say

I haven’t watched a movie since Christmas, until now, this one.

and

I haven’t watched a movie since Christmas, even until right now.

?

I suppose maybe one of them shall be something like

Je n'ai pas regardé un film depuis Noël.

But really don’t know the difference. Pls kindly suggest , thx.

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    As an aside: A different approach might make it easier for you to grasp the difference between your first examples: "Ça fait dix ans que je n'ai pas tourné de film" {still not} vs "Ça faisait dix ans que je n'avais pas tourné de film" {already done}.
    – Con-gras-tue-les-chiens
    Commented Jun 28, 2018 at 13:02
  • @Alone-zee thx but would u mind explain a bit why these two forms have the difference ?
    – athos
    Commented Jun 28, 2018 at 15:07

2 Answers 2

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With depuis, depuis...que, il y a...que, voilà...que, ça/cela fait...que:

(a) When the action is considered as still going on at the time, the French Present and Imperfect represent the English Perfect and Pluperfect respectively (French Perfect = passé composé; French Imperfect = Imparfait).

J'habite depuis quarante ans (dans) la même maison. I have been living for 40 years in the same house.

Il était absent depuis quelques heures. He had been absent for some hours.

Depuis que je suis ici je n'ai vu personne. Since I have been here I have not seen anyone.

Cela fait trois mois que je m'applique. For 3 months I have been concentrating.

(b) Where the action is already completed, the tense is the same as in English. Thus

Depuis que nous avons débarqué nous avons été volées par tout le monde (About). Since we came off the ship we have been robbed by everyone.

Le temps s'était aggravé depuis la veille.. The weather had got worse since the day before.

When a negative is involved or implied, as in I have not seen for two years, or in it is two years since I saw him, either the Present or Perfect may be used.

Il y a deux ans que je ne le vois plus.

Voilà deux ans que je ne l'ai vu.

Deux ans se sont écoulés depuis que je ne l'ai vu.

Not the omission of pas/plus with the compound tense.

Your sentences:

Je n'ai pas fait de film depuis dix ans.

Dix ans se sont écoulés depuis que je n'ai fait de films.

Voilà dix ans que je ne fais pas de films.

Il y a deux ans que je n'ai pas fait de films.

In ten years, I still haven't made a single film.

En dix ans, je n'ai toujours pas fait un seul film.

Je n'ai pas regardé un film depuis Noël.

Reference: A French Reference Grammar (H. Ferrar).

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  • do you actually say/write "depuis que je n'ai [...]"? I have never seen this construction with a ne before and it seems completely wrong to me here. Also I think "Je n'ai pas regardé un film depuis Noël." would most commonly be written as un seul film. It's possible to say it as un film because then you can put emphasis on un specifically instead of writing out the seul, but as a written sentence, seul is pretty much required.
    – Circeus
    Commented Jun 30, 2018 at 23:10
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The use of depuis is correct, but the nuance that you want to put should be done with a change of tense, not the use of a different preposition. In the first case, "not watching a movie" is part of the past because you are currently watching a movie. Therefore you use "plus-que-parfait" instead of "passé composé" like in the second sentence. 

I haven’t watched a movie since Christmas, until now, this one.

Je n'avais pas regardé un seul film depuis Noël.

and

I haven’t watched a movie since Christmas, even until right now.

Je n'ai pas regardé un seul film depuis Noël.

As a remark, my English is not very good, but I wonder if the first sentence should not be "hadn't watched" instead of "haven't watched".

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